Thursday, March 16, 2017

Stumpery

Beloved has been clearing invasives from the woodland for over a year. Months of clearing, months of burning, or at least waiting for burn permits to be released. The last purge of invasives, 2 staggering mounds of trees.
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We drove the Gator, before Christmas, toward sunset, with glasses of wine, to admire those behemoth piles. A single pile would have provided, beyond measure, everything needed for, below. You can imagine my excitement. A STUMPERY ! My personal Gator mound tour included meandering, slowing, pausing for stories of the greater feats & daring & skill required. I was locked on the stumps.
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Gave him his time for manly bravado, then, "I want to make a stumpery." Two issues against it, he had never seen or heard of a stumpery and "I" could obviously not do it myself. Describing a stumpery, his face got a 'look'. "Prince Charles has one.", did not go over well.
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It's wildly amazing how huge mounds burn down to 3 cups of ash. My stumpery included. Dream dashed.

Pic, above, here.
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For reference, a few details about filthy lucre. Beloved worked his Caterpillar months of weekends, clearing, and contouring at pond's edge and its dam. One portion of the work, about 20%, towards the end, he decided to get another contractor in and knock the job out. The bid came in at $21,000.00. He was tempted, but a pole barn still needs to be built. To speed things up, instead of hiring that contractor, he hired a large dump truck/driver for a weekend while he was in his Caterpillar.
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The clearing/burning/contouring has encompassed almost 2 acres. The math is easy, the total prodigious.

Tara, I too would love a stumpery! The Morris Arboretum, in Philadelphia is one of my favorite haunts and they have a lovely stumpery with built-in bench. It's a favorite spot for visitor photographs and one of the many truly stunning features of the Arboretum. I'm sure you could view it by searching in Google images.